


June 1978

by aryastark_valarmorghulis



Series: Glimpses [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Hogwarts Seventh Year, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), POV Remus Lupin, Pre-Relationship, free writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2020-04-08 07:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19102075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aryastark_valarmorghulis/pseuds/aryastark_valarmorghulis
Summary: Remus and Sirius, 1978.Last day at Hogwarts.





	June 1978

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Starstruck4Moony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starstruck4Moony/gifts).



> Thank you, Starstruck4Moony, for prompting and reading this!

**June 1978**

 

It's almost time for the banquet.

Remus sits on the windowsill of the empty Divination classroom, his time at Hogwarts wearing away like a beach over the high tide, slow and inevitable. 

His mum’s cooking waits for him later that evening, and he doesn’t want to let her down because he stuffed himself full during his last lunch at Hogwarts. Besides, cigarettes kind of dampen his appetite and he smoked a lot that morning - that’s it, his stomach isn’t tight because the moment he spent almost a year bracing himself for is finally here. 

Another couple of hours and then he’ll be like one of the stray kittens his mum likes to rescue, all disoriented when the cottage door is wide open, scared to venture outside with their tiny paws. They will all be strays, in a way, but, in a relapse of self-doubt and plain old class envy, he thinks,  _ me more than them _ . 

The sun is blotted out from the sky by rain-bloated clouds, daylight feeble like it’s late afternoon, the grounds a bleached, washed-down green out of tune with the budding summer. He doesn’t believe in omens, but he does believe in  the romantic correspondence between scenery and interiority.

He’s also a devoted believer in Sirius’ talent of finding him even without consulting the Map, the heavy steps on the stairwell drawing nearer and nearer.

Remus smiles, out of fondness and also because lately - can “the last three years” still qualify as lately? - his heart stumbles, intoxicated by Sirius’ mere presence, every time they happen to spend a moment alone. 

“Hey, Moony, sulking here all by yourself? You need a fag to brood in a fashionable way.”   
Remus only snorts. Of course Sirius wants to turn brooding into something cool, not just a trivial  _ I’m scared because school has ended and the real world sucks _ . Sirius does brood quite handsomely, though, and Remus bends his knees on the seat to make space for his long legs. 

It might be the last time he’ll get to watch Sirius in his Hogwarts robes, cloak crumpled and hat bent, and with a painful clutch, his heart already misses what he hasn’t lost yet. 

“Ready for the exciting Welsh countryside? Lots of goats to-” Sirius makes a vulgar gesture and Remus kicks him on his shins, but he splutters a laugh anyway. 

“Oh, bugger off!” he grins. “Ready for London?”  _ Lots of boys and girls ready to drop at your feet  _ is what he adds only in his mind.

“Very ready,” Sirius answers, a relaxed smile playing on his angular face. 

Remus hums. Of course Sirius is ready for London, he’ll be a bright star in a firmament of city lights, and he doesn’t possess an ounce of teenage awkwardness. Remus can picture his confident stride on the cobblestoned streets, finding his own hidden spots in the metropolis. It must be thrilling, to have all that freedom, but it’s not why Remus envies him. He’s sad because they won’t get to explore London together, together like they did pretty much everything in the last seven years. 

“You’ll come visit, right?” Sirius asks. He’s not looking at Remus or outside, bright grey eyes fixed on the wand he keeps twirling between his fingers, tone light, casual. A throwaway comment that has Remus feeling tender and thrilled at the same time. Blinded by his own wallowing, he forgot that behind his nonchalance, Sirius gets insecure too: his friends are the only family he’s got, after all. 

“Of course,” he says, fond.

Sirius does look up at this, and the worst is that he’s not even smiling, he’s just staring, all absorbed in Remus like he’s  _ seeking  _ something from within. If he digs deep into Remus, he’ll find love etched all over his bones, like a rune carved there time immemorial. 

They avert their eyes at the same moment, a synchrony they fine-tuned during the last year, to pinpoint the exact moment when the silence goes drenched with unsaid feelings, when they look at each without blinking a little too much for comfort. 

“Come tomorrow, then,” Sirius says. Remus chuckles at his eagerness, but on the inside, he feels flooded with warmth. “No, for real, Moony. Come tomorrow. What have you got to do? We can go out at night, do whatever you want.” 

Remus shakes his head, but he knows already he’ll go, of course he will, it’s a gut feeling after all, an innate reflex, to run after Sirius.  

“Alright,” he answers, because what he truly wants is to be with Sirius.

They share a smile, and then they climb down the stairs together, one last time. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/aryastark-valarmorghulis)!


End file.
